Category: Eric

Question 1:

During the recitation, my partner and I intend to build a circuit that can control the LED’s light according to the distance detected by the infrared distance sensor. The further the distance is, the lighter the LED is. I think such sensor combination can be applied to car manufacturing, for it can be used as the car light. When two cars encounter each other at a far distance, it is ok for the car lights to be stronger, and as the two cars get closer and closer, the car lights also need to be weaker so as to have a clear sight. The combination of the circuit we built can promote road safety, as well as make the cars more automatic and convenient to control.

Schematic:

Photos & Videos:

Question 2:

From my perspective, the code is often compared to following a recipe or tutorial in order to keep its universality, so that people from all over the world can understand each other’s code. Also, the universality of the code enables the interpretation, imitation, and learning of codes, which can greatly promote the development of coding. During this week’s recitation, I have deeply experienced the advantage brought by the universality of the code. Although it was the first time I tried to build a circuit like this, coding is not that difficult and confusing to me. Thanks to the paradigms and examples from the lectures. Although they are not the same, the universality of code makes sure that the way of coding can be applied to any situation as long as it matches programmers’ purposes.

Question 3:

I think the computer has influenced the way people interact and communicate with each other. For example, before the popularization of the computer, people used to meet each other in person or go shopping in the physical store. However, after the computer becomes an indispensable part of our life, we pay more attention to things on the internet, like we can chat with our friends on social media and do online shopping. However, this doesn’t mean that human being is less interested in interaction and communication, for people are always sparing no effort to update computers and social media to be more intelligent and user-friendly. Therefore, the computer does have influenced human behavior, as it has both enhanced and weakened human interaction and communication to a certain extent.

In week 3 recitation we are tasked with building a circuit that utilizes a sensor as input. And then use the Arduino to process the input value and output it into a different part of the sensor to create some kind of corresponding feed back. There is no schematic provided for this recitation as we are designing it ourselves. The sensor I chose was the infrared distance sensor and my output is the buzzer.(hand drawn diagram below)

Process:

The process was very smooth, I used the code I wrote during lecture and simply changed a few variables to match the new circuit, plugged everything in and it worked with no problem. The code that I wrote utilizes the analog input to generate tone, and as the input value gets larger, the length of the note decreases and the tone increases, the generated sound is very cool and natural. Since I finished early I also swapped the infrared sensor with a moisture sensor, I also later replaced the buzzer with an LED just to see if other output works, and the LED lights up very responsively(Working video below).

My Code:

int var = 0;
int buzzer = 9;
void setup() {
pinMode(buzzer,OUTPUT);
pinMode(A0,INPUT);
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
var = analogRead(A0);
int mapped = map(var,0,1023,0,1000);
Serial.println(var);
if(mapped>=50){
tone(9,mapped*4,100-(mapped/10));
}
else{
analogWrite(buzzer,0);
}

delay(100);
}

Reflection:

With the sensors I am able to get a better sense of the interaction that is possible with technology and machines. Even though the code and circuit it self is pretty much as simple as it can be, The moment that the LED lights up and when the buzzer starts responding to my interaction, it feels very nice.

Documentation questions:

Q1:What did you intend to assemble in the recitation exercise? If your sensor/actuator combination were to be used for pragmatic purposes, who would use it, why would they use it, and how could it be used?

I assembled an circuit with distance as input and sound as output, if it were to be used for practical purposes, I think it resembles a sonar alarm on a car used when parking. It is very common for all car owners to use, as the tone and frequency of the beep increases as the car gets closer to a wall. 

Q2:Code is often compared to following a recipe or tutorial.  Why do you think that is?

The reason why Code is compared to recipe or tutorial is because it requires clear instructions that is not ambiguous, a tutorial that is ambiguous will leave the user confused, a code with bad syntax will cause an error. Everything have to be done in a good structure so that the computer can understand the code.

Q3:In Language of New Media, Manovich describes the influence of computers on new media. In what ways do you believe the computer influences our human behaviors?

Computer and technology in general changes human in so many ways, one thing that I found interesting is how humans expect to interact with computers, as modern day user interface is designed to be very user friendly and easy to understand, Humans get more and more used to touching, speaking, to their machines, and expect a feedback. Just like in the amazon alexa advertisement, the users expects the lamp to talk back to them, just like how my parents sometimes touches a computer screen assuming its touch screen. This is whats interesting about human behaviors, we are born to interact with things around us using the senses we are given, and when we get a feed back that does not match up with our expectation, we feel weird.

Materials

• 1 * Arduino Uno
  • An open-source platform used for building electronics projects.
• 1 * USB A to B cable
  • Connects Arduino to computer
• 1 * breadboard
  • A base for holding and connecting the components
• 1 * buzzer
  • Create sound when the current flow
• 2 * LEDs
  • Light when the current flow
• 2 * 220 ohm resistors
  • Create resistance in the flow of electric current
• 2 * 10K ohm resistors
  • Create resistance in the flow of electric current
• 2 * pushbuttons
  • When pressed, it allows current to flow
• 2 * arcade buttons
  • When pressed, it allows current to flow
• A handful of jumper cables
  • Connect the components
• 1 * Multimeter (optional)
  • Used to measure resistance.

Circuit 1: Fade

Process:

While we were building the first circuit, we made two mistakes that made our circuit failed to function. We arranged the resistor horizontally, which doesn’t make sense since the holes are connected horizontally on the breadboard; therefore, the LED didn’t light. After we fixed this problem, the LED worked but the lightness was really low, so we called Nick for help. Nick told us, the reason of the dim light was the ohm of the resistor, since it created too much resistance in the flow of the current. Therefore, what we should do was to use the multimeter to measure the ohm of resistors, and make sure that we use the right one, which is the one with 220 ohm. We followed his instruction, and found out that we did mistakenly installed the wrong resistor. Afterward, we changed the resistor, and successfully made the circuit worked.

Circuit 2: toneMelody

Process:

Since the structure of the circuit was relatively simple, it only took us few minutes to complete the circuit. Then, we called out the code from “file” → “examples” → “digital” → “toneMelody”, and uploaded it into the Arduino board. Throughout the whole process, we didn’t encounter any difficulties, and circuit worked perfectly in our first try.

Circuit 3: Speed Game

Process:

The structure of the circuit was more complicated than the previous ones. We completely follow the picture to arrange and connecte the components. However, when we upload the code into Arduino, the circuit didn’t work well. First, there were problems with one of the buttons because it sometimes didn’t plus one to the record when pressed. Second, the LED didn’t light up when the game was finished. Since there were too many problems with the circuit, we thought we should start all over again. Therefore, we reconstructed all of the components by following the picture. We even made sure that our board was in the same direction as the picture shown. But unfortunately, the same problems occurred and we still had no idea how to fixed them. At the end of the recitation, which was when most students already left, we asked Rudi for help. Instead of following the picture, he said we should simplified the circuit. He took some jumper cables out, and directly installed legs of the resistors into the bus area of the breadboard. Furthermore, before we upload the “Speed Game” code, he said we should check if each component is able to work. He called out the “blink”,  “toneMelody” and “DigitalReadSerial” codes to check the components one by one. After we made sure that all of the components worked, we upload the “Speed Game” code into Arduino, and the circuit finally worked.

Questions

Reflect how you use technology in your daily life and on the circuits you just built. Use the text Physical Computing and your own observations to define interaction.

I started my day with turning off alarm from my cellphone and checking the time and weather. Afterwards, I need to swipe my card before I leave the dorm, and do it again before I enter the campus. Within the first two hours of my day, I already interacted with three devices. Therefore, for me, it seems like it’s nearly impossible to live without technology. Although we have been immersed in a world that consist so many different types of machines, these machines all follow  the processes of input to output, just like the circuits that we built. For the circuits that we built, the input is the code that we uploaded into Arduino, and the output is the fading light or sounds created by speaker. According to Physical Computing, interaction, in computer terms, can be defined as iterative process of “input, processing, and output.” Therefore, the processes of the circuits I mentioned can be defined as interaction.

If you have 100,000 LEDs of any brightness and color at your disposal, what would you make and where would you put it?

If I have 100,000 LEDs, I would want to create LED wallpapers by installing them on the walls and ceiling of my bedroom. By doing so, I’m able to change the wallpapers at anytime I want. For example, before I go to sleep, I can change the blank ceiling into starry night sky. Furthermore, LED wallpapers can also function as moveable wallpapers. For instance, I can create a raining scene inside my room, and I can also connect the wallpaper to my computer/phone, in order to have a bigger screen to watch movies and dramas.

Exercises

Circuit 1: Fade

This circuit is programmed to light and dim the LED repeatingly in a certain pace. Since the circuit is simple, me and my partner succeeded in building it very quickly without difficulty. 

Circuit 2: tone Melody

The second circuit is also easy to build. It sets off a speaker to play a record of music. We also finished it very soon. 

Circuit 3: Speed Game

Physical sketch map

The third circuit, however, is far more complicated that the former two, so it took most of our time in the recitation class to build and correct this one. The circuit is a gameboard where two players compete to reach ten hits on their buttons: The LED on the winner’s side will light up. 

Self-drawn Diagram

We met mainly two problems during our building process. When we finished the first try of building and began to test it, we found that player 2’s data of pushing the button was not recorded by the monitor. We modified the positions of some wires to see more clearly where had gone wrong, but we did not find any problem in the part of player 2’s circuit. Taking the advice of the faculty, we changed some parts of the circuit to see if they were functioning properly. Finally, we found the button for player 2 malfunctioning. 

After fixing the problem of the failing button, we tested again, only to notice another problem: Player 1’s LED did not light up even if player 1 wins. We troubleshot the circuit again with the help of the faculty, we found that the signal of LED 1 did not go back to the arduino but went to the Groud on the breadboard. 

Having fixed these problems, we finally made our speed game work perfectly. 

Questions

Question 1:
Reflect how you use technology in your daily life and on the circuits you just built. Use the text Physical Computing and your own observations to define interaction.

The most representitive use of technology in my daily life must be the cellphone, namely the communication apps. I think one biggest different of communication apps (for example, wechat) and traditional communication methods (like letters and phone calls) lies in their ability to achieve information delivery and storing immediately. Since the chatting apps deliver the message from user A to user B instantly, they do not force user B to receive and reply. Instead, they allow delayed responds because they can store the message information as chatting records. This feature of technology attaches freedom to the user (me), thus improves my experience in communicating with others. This feeling of mine is contexualized by the definition of interaction given by Igoe and O’sullivan’s article, that computers, as a tool, are meant to store and process information in order to aid human expressions. 

Question 2:
If you have 100,000 LEDs of any brightness and color at your disposal, what would you make and where would you put it?

I want to build a Harry Potter theme park with lots of magic experience spaces. For example, the LEDs will light up to form various magical beam patterns catering to the participants’ actions (like waving the wand) and words (spells) captured by sensors. I would like to put it in a vacation resort of a megacity. 

February 25th, 2019

Materials:

• Arduino Uno
• USB A to B cable
• Breadboard
• Buzzer
• LEDs
• 220-ohm resistors
• 10K-ohm resistors
• Pushbuttons
• A handful of jumper cables

Circuit 1: Fade

Circuit 1 Diagram

Circuit 1

Since we have become more comfortable reading schematics for simpler circuits, we were able to build the circuit fairly quickly. After uploading the code and trying it the first time, we found that the LED was really dim. But it did noticeably fade as planned. We at first thought it was something wrong with the LED itself, but it turned out we had the wrong resistor in. After switching out the 10K resistor with a 220 resistor, the circuit worked perfectly.

Circuit 2: toneMelody

Circuit 2 Diagram

Circuit 2

Building this circuit was really easy because it only required a buzzer, leaving no room for us to use the wrong resistor this time.  It worked the first time we uploaded the code onto the Arduino Uno board. 

Circuit 3: Speed Game

Circuit 3 Tinkercad

Circuit 3 Schematic

Circuit 3

This circuit looked a little daunting when we started. After digesting the instructions and the pictures given on Tinkercad we were able to build the circuit. After putting everything together, we thought we did something wrong in our wiring because nothing was happening when we pressed any of the buttons. But it wasn’t anything wrong with the circuit itself, we had just forgotten to use the serial monitor to start the game. The Speed Game was then fully operational.

Circuit 4: 4-Player Speed Game

Circuit 4

Once finding another group to team up with, we started working on the code. We basically copied the parts that had something for “player 1” and “player 2” and added two more players. Then we connected two breadboards, one having just LEDs and buttons, and uploaded our code. It worked the first try.

Question 1:

Today, its almost impossible to function without some sort of connection to technology. I can’t think of anyone I know who doesn’t come in contact with some sort of computer on a daily basis. There are many purposes and jobs these devices and programs serve, but they all run on the same simple principle of input and output. By building these circuits, we can see it very clearly when we input code and an output, like a flashing light or a tune playing, is the result. And interaction is the loop of inputting some form of information or command that returns an output based on the input. 

Question 2:

I’d want to create an art installation that would make it seem like you’re walking through the stars. It’d be a large room that would give the illusion of being endless like outer space itself. I’m not sure where I’d want to put it, just somewhere many people would be able to experience it. It’d be simplistic but beautiful and calming to be in.